Laurie McIntosh on Penland Connections

Opening Oct. 30, 2014 at Gallery 80808 in Columbia, S.C.

Sept. 24, 2014 (Columbia, S.C.): In a collaboration as innovative as the Penland residency where they met, S.C. artist Laurie McIntosh brings N.C. sculptor Jim Adams to the Midlands to launch a mixed media exhibition at Gallery 80808 to benefit the legendary Penland School of Crafts, opening Oct. 30.

Join McIntosh and Adams for the exhibition’s opening reception on Thursday, October 30, 5 p.m. to 9 p.m. at Gallery 80808 in the historic Congaree Vista district of downtown Columbia, S.C. For directions and hours, visit http://www.vistastudios80808.com.

Laurie McIntosh   3 Digits  mixed media   12 x 12 — Laurie McIntosh 3 Digits mixed media 12 x 12

Sept. 24, 2014 (Columbia, S.C.): In a collaboration as innovative as the Penland residency where they met, S.C. artist Laurie McIntosh brings N.C. sculptor Jim Adams to the Midlands to launch a mixed media exhibition to benefit the legendary Penland School of Crafts. An opening reception will be held in Columbia, S.C., at Gallery 80808/Vista Studios (home to McIntosh’s studio), on Thursday, October 30, 2014, from 5:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m.

The exhibition, “Penland Connections,” will run from Thursday, Oct. 30, 2014 through Tuesday, Nov. 11, 2014 at Gallery 80808. Partial proceeds of the exhibition will benefit the Penland School of Crafts’ general work-study scholarship fund.

Penland leaves a deep mark; the school’s annual benefit auction is a who’s who of the Southeast’s most passionate artists, collectors and enthusiasts, and its residency program attracts skilled artists and craftspeople from around the world. A stimulating, transformative, egalitarian place where people love to work, feel free to experiment, and often exceed their own expectations, Penland enriches lives by teaching skills, ideas, and the value of the handmade.

To Laurie McIntosh and Jim Adams – and many other artists in the Southeast and around the globe – Penland means immersion.

“It changed my life,” McIntosh says of her first session in 2000. “For two weeks, 24 hours a day, I was immersed in the practice of making and talking about art with other artists. Since then, I have taken three more sessions over the past 14 years well as a winter resident artist study. It was during this winter residency when I met Jim Adams.”

A skilled metalsmith and sculptor who is well established in the Durham and Hillsborough, N.C. art communities, Jim Adams is a studio artist known for his visceral, architectural work. Jim Adams’ studio practice is based on a procedure wherein the materials he collects become collaborators in the stories he tells through drawing, painting and sculpting. Adams has taught at Penland as well as participating in the winter residency program.

“My experiences at Penland as a student, short-term resident artist and instructor have given me access to facilities and skills that would have taken a lifetime to acquire on my own,” notes Adams. “Like so many relationships to which Penland has led me, this one was destined to bear fruit in the arts. I am honored to be exhibiting with Laurie and grateful for the lasting friendship that is developing.“

Jim Adams  Untitled — Jim Adams Untitled

Laurie McIntosh  Whirling Pages   24 x 20 — Laurie McIntosh Whirling Pages 24 x 20

McIntosh’s contribution to exhibition will consist of an expression of ideas, displaying her new work, “Pages,” an ongoing series of large, deconstructed paintings created with multiple layers of calligraphic marks and grounds, bound together to create a new visual relationships between the images.

“I am drawn to the process of creating…drawn to what happens when you allow your everyday self to leave the room and let that elusive creative hand step in and work,” says McIntosh. She has been working on the series, “Pages,” since 2012.

“There are only 15 or so artists at Penland during the winter,” notes McIntosh, “So we all spent a lot of time and meals in our shared dorm getting to know each other in our down time. After one of these long days of working, Jim and I decided to have a show together.”

“This work was born out of some of the images that occurred while creating an earlier work, ‘All the In Between, My Story of Agnes,’ 74 painted panels telling the cradle to grave story of a life well lived – the life of my mother,” notes McIntosh. “Contained in this work are several layered calligraphic panels that serve as segues between the important stages of her life.”

Once All the In Between was complete, McIntosh began to work on pieces that combined words and mark making with recognizable subject matter, such as “Anhinga Nest.” As the work progressed, the recognizable subjects became less important. “I began to intuitively pour my thoughts onto the surface, using different handwriting, not caring whether it was legible or not,” observes McIntosh. “I could write anything down using a variety of water media and mark-making tools.

McIntosh explored putting these images into book form, but she became frustrated with not being able to see all of the images at a once. “I became fascinated with the images that resulted from deconstructing the large paintings in creating the signatures for the books,” she adds. “I began to explore options for ways to take these images and put them back together in a way that created a brand new relationship between them on a larger scale.”

Jim Adams: On Penland

“Certainly, the relationships with other artists have been cultivated through the years I have visited the school,” says Adams. “The exchange of creative ideas and ways of thinking about making art has impacted me in ways that I will be discovering for the rest of my career.”

“The first class I took at Penland was a painting class with Clarence Morgan as the instructor; the critiques we had were invaluable, and feedback regarding the path of an artist and what it means to be an artist were life altering for me,” notes Adams. “Though I had been working as an illustrator and in the performing arts for a decade and a half before arriving at Penland the first time, it wasn't until the end of my first week at Penland when I realized, ‘I am actually an artist.’ It was a transforming experience and one that has directed my course since!”

Adams adds, “I have had many great experiences at Penland since that realization occurred, but in the Winter of 2014 I was fortunate enough to have the Iron Studio to myself for several weeks. It was during this time when I met Laurie McIntosh, who was also wintering there as a painter. Through our conversations over meals and wine, the idea for this exhibition was born.”